These are the Montana SageGrouse Core Areas 2010 polygons for Idaho-SW Montana Greater Sage Grouse Subregion. Areas that overlap into Idaho do not apply to Idaho and may represent difference in boundaries.

Dataset credit:

This data would not be available in spatial format without the cooperation of the wildlife biologists of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and Bureau of Land Management.

Language of dataset: en

Point Of Contact

Contact information for the individual or organization that is knowledgeable about the data.

Organization: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

Person: Lydia Bailey

Position: GIS Manager

Phone: 406-444-5365

Email: lbailey@mt.gov

Hours of service: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m Mon-Fri

Address type: mailing address

Address:

1420 E. 6th Avenue

City: Helena

State or Province: MT

Postal code: 59601

County: USA

Data Type

How the data are represented, formatted and maintained by the data producing organization.

Time period(s) for which the data corresponds to the currentness reference.

Date: 20100401

Currentness reference:

publication date

Status

The state of and maintenance information for the data.

Data status: Complete

Update frequency: As needed

Key Words

Words or phrases that summarize certain aspects of the data.

Theme:

Keywords: biota, Sage-grouse, Planning

Keyword thesaurus: ISO 19115 Topic Categories

Theme:

Keywords: Greater Sage-Grouse, Upland Game Birds, Wildlife, Grouse

Keyword thesaurus: None

Place:

Keywords: Montana

Data Access Constraints

Restrictions and legal prerequisites for accessing or using the data after access is granted.

Access constraints:

None

Use constraints:

Users must assume responsibility to determine the usability of this data for their purposes. This data set is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this data set and assumes no responsibility for the suitability of this data set for a particular purpose. FWP will not be liable for any damages incurred as a result of errors in this data set.

Data Security Information

Handling restrictions imposed on the data because of national security, privacy or other concerns.

Security classification: Unclassified

Graphic Example

Browse Graphic

Graphic illustration of the data.

Browse graphic 1

Open
- Map of sage-grouse core areas in Montana.

Spatial Reference Information

Horizontal Coordinate System

Reference system from which linear or angular quantities are measured and assigned to the position that a point occupies.

Projected coordinate system:

Name: NAD 1983 StatePlane Montana FIPS 2500

Map units: meters

Geographic coordinate system:

Name: GCS North American 1983

Coordinate System Details

Grid coordinate system

Grid coordinate system name: State Plane Coordinate System

State Plane Coordinate System:

SPCS xone identifier: 2500

Lambert Conformal Conic:

Standard parallel: 45.000000

Standard parallel: 49.000000

Longitude of central meridian: -109.500000

Latitude of projection origin: 44.250000

False easting: 600000.000000

False northing: 0.000000

Planar Coordinate Information

Planar coordinate encoding method: coordinate pair

Coordinate representation:

Abscissa resolution: 0.000363

Ordinate resolution: 0.000363

Planar distance units: meters

Geodetic model

Horizontal datum name: North American Datum of 1983

Ellipsoid name: Geodetic Reference System 80

Semi-major axis: 6378137.000000

Denominator of flattening ratio: 298.257222

Vertical Coordinate System

Reference system from which vertical distances (altitudes or depths) are measured.

Description of spatial objects in the data using the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) terminology.

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) terms

GreaterSageGrouseCoreAreas_IDSWMT_Subregion_01122012

ESRI feature type: Simple

Geometry type: Polygon

Topology: FALSE

Feature count: 3

Spatial index: FALSE

Linear referencing: FALSE

SDTS Feature Description

Description of point and vector spatial objects in the data using the Spatial Data Transfer Standards (SDTS) terminology.

Spatial data transfer standard (SDTS) terms

GreaterSageGrouseCoreAreas_IDSWMT_Subregion_01122012

Type: G-polygon

Count: 3

Data Quality and Accuracy Information

Attribute Accuracy

Accuracy of the identification of data entities, features and assignment of attribute values.

Attribute accuracy report:

Good - based on input and review by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildlife biologists.

Data Source and Process Information

Process Steps

Information about events, parameters, tolerances and techniques applied to construct or derive the data.

Process step information

Process Step 1

Process description:

Displaying Male Density Determined: 1) Identifying Highest Density: Two different point density estimation methods (noted below) were used to identify the highest densities of displaying male sage-grouse based upon lek locations. Both techniques identified the same lek complexes as having the highest densities at the 25% quartile.
a. Audubon (K. Doherty) used a 6440m circular neighborhood analysis (Spatial Analyst Tools ArcGIS 9.2) at 1km grid cell size. The maximum male count available between 2005-2007 was used to evaluate male density. The resulting surface was randomly sampled using 50,000 points to determine the quartile breakpoints.
b. MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks used a Fixed Kernel Density Estimator (Hawths Tools -ArcGIS 9.2) with a bivariate normal kernel and a smoothing factor of 10, 000 at a 500m cell size. The kernel was weighted based upon the average of the highest male count for each year from 1998-2008. The quartile boundaries are provided by the program.

Process date: 20080801

Process Step 2

Process description:

Focus Area: Lek complexes and associated habitats, typically within a 10 km search radius of leks in the complex, defined the outside boundaries of this analysis. In some instances, habitat associated with a core lek complex may have extended beyond 10 km. Overlaying documented seasonal habitats connected to and extending beyond these areas and manual editing were necessary to incorporate these exceptions.

Process date: 20080801

Process Step 3

Process description:

Habitat Suitability Analysis: For the purposes of this analysis, unsuitable habitats and suitable habitats within or adjacent to core areas were generally defined as follows:
a. Unsuitable Habitat
·Cultivated row-crop parcels > 600 acres
·Areas where 75% or more of the surrounding 1000 acres are cultivated land*
·Areas where 20% or more of the surrounding 1000 acres are forested habitat*
·Areas where 75% or more of the surrounding 1000 acres exceeded a terrain ruggedness threshold of 13.** Note: This criteria was not included for intermountain valleys of southwestern Montana because of the unique topographic features and demonstrated habitat use by sage-grouse
* Landcover values were obtained from the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD). Analyses were based upon a 30m grid cell. Percentages are based on a 2 km X 2 km search window (1,000 acres).
** Terrain ruggedness is the standard deviation of elevation surrounding an area based upon a 30m grid cell. The threshold was chosen based on 95% of leks having a value of 13 or lower.
b. Suitable Habitat
·Areas where 75% or more of the surrounding 1000 acres had a 10% or greater probability of supporting a sage-grouse lek.
1.The majority of core area boundaries were based upon this delineation.
2.The probability used is based upon a habitat suitability model that used lek locations to identify suitable habitat. This model was produced by the MT Natural Heritage Program and is documented at ( http://mtnhp.org/reports/MaltaFO_2007.pdf ).

Process date: 20080901

Process Step 4

Process description:

Field biologists from FWP and BLM reviewed printed maps showing the habitat parameters described above to identify outer boundaries of core areas and determined general accuracy of designated non-habitats. Printed maps were at a scale of 1:200,000.

Process date: 20081001

Process Step 5

Process description:

Based upon those biologists expert opinion, refinements were made to the core area boundaries. This allowed for inclusion of nesting and brood rearing areas not captured by the lek driven model.

Process date: 20081001

Process Step 6

Process description:

Telemetry data was utilized to refine core area boundaries in southwestern Powder River and southeastern Bighorn counties and Beaverhead and Madison Counties to help refine mapping of Core habitats in these areas. Data from Powder River and Bighorn counties was obtained from research done by Dr. Dave Naugle, University of Montana. Data from Beaverhead and Madison counties was obtained from research done by the BLM.

Process date: 20081001

Process Step 7

Process description:

The mapped habitat, refinements based upon biological expert opinion and integration of existing research data were incorporated to develop Version 1.0

Description: This metadata is displayed using the FGDC Plus Stylesheet, which is an XSL template that can be used with ArcGIS software to display metadata. It displays metadata elements defined in the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) - aka FGDC Standard, the ESRI Profile of CSDGM, the Biological Data Profile of CSDGM, and the Shoreline Data Profile of CSDGM. CSDGM is the US Federal Metadata standard. The Federal Geographic Data Committee originally adopted the CSDGM in 1994 and revised it in 1998. According to Executive Order 12096 all Federal agencies are ordered to use this standard to document geospatial data created as of January, 1995. The standard is often referred to as the FGDC Metadata Standard and has been implemented beyond the federal level with State and local governments adopting the metadata standard as well.
The Biological Data Profile broadens the application of the CSDGM so that it is more easily applied to biological data that are not explicitly geographic (laboratory results, field notes, specimen collections, research reports) but can be associated with a geographic location. Includes taxonomical vocabulary. The Shoreline Data Profile addresses variability in the definition and mapping of shorelines by providing a standardized set of terms and data elements required to support metadata for shoreline and coastal data sets. The FGDC Plus Stylesheet includes the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. It supports W3C DOM compatible browsers such as IE7, IE6, Netscape 7, and Mozilla Firefox. It is in the public domain and may be freely used, modified, and redistributed. It is provided "AS-IS" without warranty or technical support.

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